There is nothing unusual in ropes breaking or other such unlikely mishaps in fiction. That is artistic license. (Of course now it will prove to be an assasination attempt, and I will have made a fool of myself.)

She falls from the same hight as the lowest point of the circle made by the wingtips. That is not that far up. Could be fatal, but not inevitably so.

I would go for assasination attempt/rope sabotage. If the proper safety procedures are followed, this just shall not happen.

As to the height: Difficult to judge from the perspective in strip #2, but I would guess she falls from approx 30m / 100ft height. Inevitably fatal.

Don't you know how cartoon physics works? A fall from extreme height will cause no injuries whatsoever as long as somebody catches you at the bottom. Because only the ground can cause rapid, fatal deceleration.

"Being human, having your health; that's what's important."(from: Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi )"As long as we're all living, and as long as we're all having fun, that should do it, right?"(from: The Eccentric Family )

Don't you know how cartoon physics works? A fall from extreme height will cause no injuries whatsoever as long as somebody catches you at the bottom. Because only the ground can cause rapid, fatal deceleration.

Well, Wile E. Coyote certainly has had his share of stony ground crashes from high altitude, without being killed so far. And neither the Road Runner nor anybody else has been there to catch him before the crash.

Maybe it was sabotage. I am waiting for Changing Eyes to show his superpowers and save her.

Huh, an assassination attempt or sabotage hadn't occurred to me, but it seems indeed to be a likely explanation. Although I still think one should examine the rope before using it, if it is indeed attached at the top of the turbine and rolls up automatically while climbing and then again automatically abseils the climber, that's hard to do.

If this accident is not fatal, it will be a miracle indeed, assuming it takes place in a universe with the same physical laws as ours.

I know it looks like it will be fatal, but that would be such a sad option from a story-telling perspective. I just have the feeling that if the girl is Alice, she will not die right at the start. I certainly wish she doesn't die; I'm so set on her being the main character. Maybe my feeling is wrong and she does die. But I would be sad to just see everything in retrospective or her not being in the comic -- although admittedly it can be a very gripping story-telling trick.

A Soviet-era fighter pilot ejected from his plane at insanely high altitude -- over 10,000 feet-- and survived. It's possible to fall from tremendous heights and live. It just depends on how you land, and on what. What kind of shape she'd be in, assuming she lived, would be something else altogether.

Wile E. Coyote certainly has had his share of stony ground crashes from high altitude, without being killed so far. And neither the Road Runner nor anybody else has been there to catch him before the crash.

ACME FallBoy, guaranteed* to catch your corpse you if placed near the area of impact.ACME FallBoy: He'll take the fall for you!

*Warning: ACME FallBoy is scared of lemurs, goldfish, koalas, pianos and most objects that do not appear kitten-shaped. If it catches a non-kitten object, ACME FallBoy is subject to explode.

Logged

This guitar solo is meant to evoke the unrelenting brutality of harvesting carrots.

A Soviet-era fighter pilot ejected from his plane at insanely high altitude -- over 10,000 feet-- and survived. It's possible to fall from tremendous heights and live. It just depends on how you land, and on what. What kind of shape she'd be in, assuming she lived, would be something else altogether.

I believe due to the way terminal velocity works, after a certain point it doesn't make that much difference how high you are.

Maybe the comic will indeed be her life flashing before her eyes. Given her mechanical career, we could pretend that the comic was originally titled "Relive a cog" but the letters arrived out of order on the server.

A Soviet-era fighter pilot ejected from his plane at insanely high altitude -- over 10,000 feet-- and survived. It's possible to fall from tremendous heights and live. It just depends on how you land, and on what. What kind of shape she'd be in, assuming she lived, would be something else altogether.

When falling from extreme heights, I think passing out and going limp is a big factor in surviving. Stay conscious and you'll go rigid, and that doesn't end well.

Also, to add to the conversation about her scaling the turbine, I believe that turbines have winches to let maintenance workers down by rope in cases of emergency. The other character is running with a purpose in clothes not fit for running, and then gives the universal symbol for help. This could be an emergency situation, which makes the potential outcome of this accident even more tragic. Oof.

I believe due to the way terminal velocity works, after a certain point it doesn't make that much difference how high you are.

Of course, I don't know if 10k feet is after that point.

Gravity is approx 9.8 m/s2 (i.e. your speed increases at 9.8 m/s every second if you ignore wind resistance)

Wind resistance is proportional to the square of the velocity

You reach terminal velocity when the wind resistance balances the force of gravity

The terminal velocity of a person depends on their orientation. If their body is parallel to the ground they present the greatest surface area and, therefore, the lowest terminal velocity. I've heard it said on TV programmes the a sky diver has a terminal velocity of appox 120 mph. A quick check on-line shows that that's appox 54 m/s (you can call it 55 if it makes the maths easier).

In a vacuum, it'd take approx 5.5-6 seconds to reach that velocity. With wind resistance, it'll take longer as the acceleration gets less with time. However, as wind resistance is proportional to the square of the velocty, the acceleration will be almost normal until later. Therefore, it won't take that much longer to reach terminal velocity.

Acceleration to terminal velocity is a "decaying" (negative-powered) exponential. You will approach terminal velocity fairly quickly at first, close to the linear velocity increase in a vacuum; the increase in velocity slows as you approach the terminal velocity. It's actually a limit. However, it will take more than one or two hundred feet to get close.

Nevertheless, she'll be traveling at a good clip when she hits... if she hits. I don't see much of an alternative, though.